Device for lowering objects



2 Sheet.s-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

J. M. SEYMOUR. 13337103 POE LOWERING OBJEOTS.

Patented Oct. 8, 1895.

AN DREW E GRM1AM. PNOTO-LTTHOWAEHIN GTON. D c

(No Model.) v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. M. SEYMOUR.

DEVICE FOR LOWERING OBJECTS.

Patented Oct. 8, 1895.

llivirnn STATES ATENT Urrrcn.

JAMES M. SEYMOUR, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

DEVICE FOR LOWERING OBJECTS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 547,459, dated October8, 1895. Application filed July 3, 1895- Serial No. 554,856. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JAMES M. SEYMOUR, a citizen of the United States,residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey,haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for LoweringObjects; andI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to animproved mechanism for lowering heavyobjects of various kinds. In many of the arts and industries it isnecessary to lower objects having more or less weight, being sometimesthose that are of immense weight. This lowering is to be done surely andcarefully, sometimes rapidly, often slowly, and generally with cautionand care.

The object of this invention is to providea means for this purposewhereby objects of any weight, no matter how great or how small, may belowered as rapidly or as slowly as may be required with the expenditureof but a trifling amount of power, the whole device being simple,compact, and self-containing; and the invention therefore consists,essentially, in the construction, arrangement, and combination of partsand in numerous details and peculiarities thereof, substantially as willbe hereinafter described and claimed.

In the annexed drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure l is a sideelevation of my improved device for lowering objects. Fig.2 is alongitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is across-section on the linea: no of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the mechanismshown in the left-hand portion of Fig. 2, the same embracing the pistonwith its extension and the cylinder-head extension with which the pistonextension telescopes. Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of themechanism shown at the right-hand end of Fig. 2, the same including thepacking devices for the screw-shaft at the point where the latter passesthrough the right-hand head of the cylinder. Fig. 6 is an enlargedcross-sectional view similar to Fig." 3 and taken on the line as as ofFig. 2. Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view on the liney y of Fig. 4..

Similar letters of reference designate correjsponding parts throughoutall the different figures of the drawings.

A denotes a cylinder of suitable size and shape and adapted to contain aliquid or fluid-as, for instance, glycerine-which I have selected assuitableliquid for my purpose. The cylinder A is closed at one end by ahead 01., attached thereto by means of bolts, as shown, and at the otherend it is closed by a head a likewise attached by bolts, said head ahaving a hollow cylindrical extension A, which is closed at its outerend. The cylinder A is preferably mounted on the supports or legs 0. (1,although I do not intend to be restricted to such a mounting and reservethe liberty of locating the cylinder wherever it may be needed in theperformance of the work of the machine.

Within the cylinder A is the piston B, which is of suitable shape andsize. This piston B is engaged by the screw-shaft O, which screwsthrough the center of said piston, a screw-threaded central openingbeing made therein to receive the screw. In order to pre vent leakageand for other purposes to be presently explained, it is necessary thatthe screw-shaft 0 shall not pass entirely through the piston, so as toproject on the opposite side thereof; but this is ordinarily impossible,in View of the small thickness of a common piston and the considerablelength of travel that the latter will have upon the screw, andconsequently the piston must be provided with, a chamber or receptaclewhereby its width at the central point where the screw is located may beincreased sufficiently toprovide acavity to receive the screw and yetnot interfere with the travel of the piston upon the screw. Thisscrew-receiving receptacle in the piston may be of any form and shape,it being only essential that the piston be provided with some sort of'areceptacle wherein the end of the screw which passes through the centerof the piston may find room to enter and rotate without projecting intothe space upon the other side of said piston. One form of suchreceptacle I provide in the example of my invention shown in thedrawings, Where I illustrate a hollow elongated extension B, which ismade integral with the piston B and which is adapted to movetelescopically with the cylinder-head extension A, as is clearly shownin Figs. 2 and 4, said hollow extension B being closed at its outer end,while its interior communicates with the opposite face of the piston B,and consequently with the interior of the cylinder A, through the portsor passages 12 b, of which there may be any suitable n u mber-as, forinstance, fouras shown in Fig. 3. It will therefore be understood thatthe hollow cylindrical extension B is an integral part of the piston B,and that it may be made in any form and situated in any manner, providedonly that it is adapted to receive the end of the screw-shaft, whichscrews through the center of the piston and enables said shaft to work,as it were, at all times inside of the piston without projectingentirely through the same, no matter what may be the length of thetravel of the piston upon said screw-shaft. The rotation of the shaft 0causes the piston B to travel in one direction or the other, accordingto the direction of rotation of said shaft, it being particularly notedthat the shaft 0 has no endwise movement. Shaft Opasses out of cylinderAthrough one of its heads, as head a. A recess is formed in said head toreceive the collar 0 on the shaft 0. On one side of this collar c in thebottom of the said recess is a rawhide or other washer cl. On the otherside of the collar 0 is a loose metal collar K, whichis seated onashoulderk, (see Fig. 5,) said shoulder being formed by an enlargementof the diameter of the recess within the head a beyond the diameter ofthat portion of the recess wherein the shaft-collar c and the rawhidewasher (Z are situated, all as is clearly shown in the drawings. Theobject of the collar K is to prevent the packing, consisting of theseveral washers d, which are situated against the metal collar K, frompressing upon the shaft-collar 0 when they are being compressed. Thusthe shaft-collar c is allowed to revolve freely between the washer d andthe metal collar K. The packing d may be of any suitable material, asrawhide, or any other convenient substance, and it is held in place bymeans of the stuffing-box, and is compressed against the metallic collarK by means of the screw-gland D, through which the shaft O passes. Theouter part of the shaft 0 is journaled in the standards or supports it hand preferably carries a pulley H between these supports. The pulley Hmay, however, if desired, be located at any other convenient andsuitable point upon the shaft 0. Around this pulley I-I passes a belt i,and this is fastened to the weight I, which is to be lowered. It will beunderstood, of course, that I do not wish to be confined to anyparticular means for connecting the screw-shaft O to the weight which isto be lowered, and reserve the liberty of carrying out this part of myinvention in any desired manner. Although the pistonB is designed totravel upon the screw-shaft O in consequence of the rotation of saidshaft, yet it must be distinctly understood that the piston itself isnon-rotative. I- have already stated that the piston extension Boccupies a position within the cylinder-head extension A; hence therewill be an annular space between the parts A and B. On the interior ofthe part A, which I have said surrounds the part B, is a rib, tongue,groove, lug, or other projection L, which is either integral with theextension A or is attached thereto by being seated in the groovetherein, as shown in Fig. 6, or by being attached in some other suitablemanner, and this rib ortongue engages with the grooveZ in the pistonextension B, as will be clearly seen by referring to Figs. 4, 6, and 7,being thusa sort of feathered connection between the two telescopicparts A and B, so that the piston is prevented from rotating, althoughpermitted to have a longitudinal travel. It is manifest, however, thatthis connection between these two parts may be made at some other pointthan that shown in the drawings, if desired, or a connection may be madedirect between the piston and the cylinder, or some other connection ofa different characteror involving different specific mechanical meansmay be employed for the same purpose without departing fro-m myintention. At the point where the piston extension B enters into thecylinder-head extension A, or, in other words, at the point where theextension B passes through the cylinder-head a there is a closed joint,through which the extension B moves when the piston B reciprocates, andaround this joint are a few ports or passages G G- say four of them, forinstancewhich lead from the interior of cylinder A into the annularspace between the extensions A and B. (See Figs. 3, 4, and 6.) A pipe,conduit, or channel E of some suitable sort extends from a point in thewall of cylinder A near the head a to a point in the wall near the otherhead a, and serves to connect the interior parts of cylinder A on theopposite sides of piston B. This pipe E is provided with a valve or cookF to control the passage of fluid through the pipe E, and thus releasethe pressure.

The operation of my improved mechanism for lowering weights is asfollows: The cylinder, cylinder-head extension, piston extension, andthe pipes will first be filled with a suitable liquid. I mentionedglycerine as suitable for this purpose because it will not freeze. Thisquantity of liquid, after the device is once charged therewith, will bekept constant. Hence the interior working parts of the device will bethoroughly submerged within the liquid and will be efficientlylubricated thereby, since all their movements will take place within theliquid. Hence there will be scarcely any friction on the moving partsbecause of this thorough lubrication. Now if the weight to be lowered besuspended atI it will tend to revolve the shaft 0. If the valve F isclosed, however, it will be impossible for the shaft O to revolve, asthe piston B cannot move, pressing as it will against any unyieldingmass of liquid in the cylinder. If the valve F be opened more or less soas to release this press me, which is against the piston, and permit theliquid to pass through the valve, then the piston can move. Thereforewhen valve F is opened the weight I will descend, the speed of thedescent being regulated and governed by the valve F. It is to be notedthat all of the pressure is on the right-hand side of the piston andthat the function of the valve F is simply to release this pressure byallowing more or less of the mass of liquid on the right hand of thepiston to pass through pipe E to the other side of the piston, on whichother side there is obviously no pressure, but the space at that pointis used simply to receive the liquid which flows out from the advancingside of the piston. With the valve F wide open, the weight will dropquickly. With it open only a little, the descent of the weight may be sogradual as to be imperceptible. The gravity-action of the heavy weightobviously is to rotate the screw, which we have seen is immovableendwise, and this rotation is permitted to take place as rapidly as theopposing fluid in the cylinder against the piston will permit. As thepiston moves along on the screw, the end of the latter enters the pistonextension or piston-receptacle and displaces a certain amount of fluidtherein which must find exit through the portsb b. This is essential tothe correct operation of the device. Without these ports I) Z) the screwcould not of course enter the mass of liquid within the extension Bwithout bursting the wall of said extension, since the shaft mustdisplace a certain amount of fluid. WVhen the screw-shaft withdraws fromthe extension B, the space which it occupied therein will be filled withliquid there would be a leakage through the joint 13 and the weight Iwill depend upon the number of threads in the screw 0. Suppose that thisscrew has three threads to the inch and that the pulley II has adiameter of four inches or a circumference of a foot, then the weightwill drop a foot at each revolution of the screw, and for one inchmovement of the piston the Weight will drop three feet.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a device for lowering objects, the combination with afluid-containing cylinder having one end provided with a hollowextension, of a piston having a hollow extension entering the aforesaidextension and with ports on its face, a screw-shaft passing into thepiston, and a valve-provided passage connecting the ends of thecylinder, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the fluid-containing cylinder, the piston having ahollow extension and ports running from the face of the piston into saidextension, a screw-shaft engaging said piston and provided with a collarto prevent endwise movement, a pulley on the screw-shaft, and means forreleasing the fluid from the advancing face of the piston.

3. The combination of the fluid cylinder having a closed hollowextension at one end, ports leading thereinto from the cylinder, apiston having a closed hollow extension which telescopes with thecylinder extension, ports in the piston leading from the hollowextension to the piston-face, a screw-shaft engaging the piston, apassage connecting the ends of the cylinder, and a valve in saidpassage, substantially as described.

4. In a device for lowering objects, the combination with thefluid-containing cylinder, of a chamber-provided piston therein, meansfor preventing the rotation of the piston but permitting itslongitudinal movement, a screw-shaft engaging a piston without passingto the other side thereof, and a valve be-.

JAMES M. SEYMOUR. Witnesses:

NATHAN F. DENTON, J12, ADELBERT M. HARRIS.

